Nothing to Forgive
by Kips34
Summary: It is the night of Bella's 18th birthday, and there is chaos in the Cullen household. Edward is distraught. The family blames Jasper. Jasper blames himself. But Bella understands no one is to blame. A short story of understanding and sibling love. ONE SHOT!


**NOTHING TO FORGIVE**

 **SUMMARY –** It is the night of Bella's 18th birthday, and there is chaos in the Cullen household. Edward is distraught. The family blames Jasper. Jasper blames himself. But Bella understands no one is to blame. A short story of understanding and sibling love. ONE SHOT!

 **CHAPTER 1**

After Edward had thrown her out of the way, and through the glass table, he, Emmett, and Carlisle had dragged a struggling Jasper out the back door and disappeared. Within a minute, Alice, Rosalie, and Esme had followed after them, needing to be sure that their mates were alright. Which of course left Bella alone, bleeding on the living room floor.

She had quickly decided that was a good thing. None of them needed to be around her while she was bleeding, especially after Jasper's reaction, and the instinct to be sure of their mates was completely understandable. She had wanted to chase after Edward as well to ascertain that he was safe, but in her human state she knew she wouldn't have been able to find him so she had resisted the urge to chase after him.

Instead she had wrapped her arm loosely in cloth in an attempt to stop the bleeding, not bothering to clean or stitch the wound since she knew Carlisle would want to handle that later anyway. Then she'd got down on the living room floor and gathered up all of the broken glass, and mopped up all of the blood. She spent over an hour making it so it looked as if nothing had happened.

And then she waited for the others to return. For nearly two hours she waited patiently, her arm beginning to bleed through her makeshift bandage, and her eyes beginning to droop with fatigue.

She rose from the couch then and made her way to the kitchen, where she washed out her wounds as best she could, knowing full well that the numerous deep gashes along the length of her shoulder and upper arm would require quite a lot of stitches, and that they were definitely going to leave scars.

But she wasn't angry, or afraid. She didn't blame Jasper for lunging at her, or Edward for shoving her out of the way. She was just worried that they hadn't come back yet. Had they fought after they left? Was someone hurt… or God forbid, was someone dead? If something had happened to one of the family because of her… She shuddered at the mere thought of it.

Bella began debating then. Should she call Charlie and say she was spending the night here tonight so he wouldn't get worried? Should she just go home now and come back in the morning? Should she keep waiting here for them to return? Or should she try to find them herself out in the woods?

Would Edward be upset with her for giving herself the paper cut? Would Jasper be angry with her for tempting him, for causing him pain?

She didn't know what to do. But it was becoming abundantly clear that the family was not coming back anytime soon. So she needed to do something.

And so she stalked out the back door and made her way into the dense trees, determined to find Jasper, and make sure that he, Edward, and the rest of the family were alright.

An hour later and Bella was now wandering in circles in the woods behind the Cullen mansion, calling out to her brother at random intervals. She knew that he was out here somewhere, and she knew very well that he could likely hear her already, but he wasn't coming out.

"Jasper," Bella called yet again, her voice betraying her pain and exhaustion, "Please come out."

She knew she probably should have waited and let Carlisle take a look at her shoulder. The blood was once again flowing freely down her arm, and she could feel the tiny pieces of glass shifting under her tender skin. In comparison, the tiny cut on her finger that started this whole mess seemed rather inconsequential to Bella now, though she'd done nothing to tend to that wound either.

Somewhere in the back of her mind she wondered if it was wise to be searching the woods for a vampire with a flesh wound that was still bleeding, but she also knew that no matter what had happened tonight, Jasper wouldn't hurt her. And neither would the rest of the family if she managed to find one of them first.

"Bella?" a soft voice echoed through the trees to her left, "Darling is that you?" he asked, though she knew that he would have known the answer to his question before he even finished asking. "What are you doing all the way out here?"

"I've been looking for you," she answered, looking Jasper squarely in the eyes, willing him to see and feel her relief and acceptance at seeing him here, safe.

"You're not afraid of me?" he asked her, sounding as though he thought that was an absolute impossibility.

"Of course not," she assured him, quickly closing the distance between them and pulling her brother in for a tight hug, "Why would I be?"

Jasper just stared at the girl wrapped in his arms for a long moment, completely stunned at the peaceful calm coming off of her. She felt nothing but love and joy and relief, as if she had been worried about him. He could have killed her just hours ago, and instead of running for the hills, she had chased after him to make sure that he was ok… This girl was absolutely certifiably insane, and he loved her as if she were his own flesh and blood.

"Why aren't you scared Bella?" he pulled back from her embrace just enough to see her face, truly needing to understand what she was thinking.

"You're my brother Jasper," she told him as if that answered all his questions, "I could never fear you. You reacted exactly as I expected you would in that sort of situation, and I can't blame you for that."

"I could have killed you. I wanted to kill you. If the others hadn't pulled me out of there in time… Bella, I would have killed you. How can that not bother you?"

"Tell me something Jasper," she spoke to him calmly, ignoring his queries for the moment, "What does bloodlust feel like to you?"

He didn't think he understood what she was asking, or why, but he humored her in hopes she might explain her own thinking, "It's a powerful desire, like an invisible force drawing you to your prey. It's pain and hunger and desire, like an intense craving. It's like what a human might feel when handed a bottle of water after days wandering through the scorching desert, the relief and joy and almost animalistic thirst all rolled into one."

"So, as an empath, when one of the others is thirsty, you can feel that intense sensation coming off of them as if it were your own, right?" she continued, and he thought he saw what she was getting at.

"And if say six other vampires were all feeling the effects of their bloodlust with you in the room, it would be as if you were thirsty for seven, correct?"

His eyes widened in surprise as he realized what she was suggesting, "And Edward's thirst, it's much stronger than the others' right? Because I'm his singer…" she continued without missing a beat, quickly hammering her point home.

"Jasper, a single drop of blood would never have been enough to set you off if it had just been the two of us alone when it happened. I'm bleeding right now, and you've barely even blinked. But that thirst sevenfold, made worse by the presence of the one person my blood sings to like no other… How could anyone blame you for losing control with that to deal with?"

She didn't blame him. She didn't hate him. She didn't fear him.

She was in awe of his strength and his control and his heart. She loved him, and she trusted him.

So Jasper Whitlock held his little, human sister to him tightly and soaked in her acceptance and her trust, and in that moment he felt himself beginning to build back up his trust in himself and he knew that they were going to be ok now. She would never turn on him, and if she was right, he would never hurt her. They would help each other from now on, like true siblings should.


End file.
